Norm Coleman's Last 400 Shots

It looks like Sen. Norm Coleman's last shot at retaining his Minnesota Senate seat will be an appeal to the state Supreme Court.  Al Franken (D) leads Coleman by 225 votes. Today, the judges overseeing the recount trial said they'll review a tiny number of absentee ballots -- just 400.  Assuming that the judges decide to award those ballots to either candidate, Coleman would need to receive roughly 85 percent of them in order to come close to Franken, much less surpass him. Coleman's lawyers are already looking ahead to an appeal before the state supreme court. There, they'll be able to argue that Coleman was the victim of unspecified constitutional violations by various election authorites in the state. An appeal will take about six weeks. Then, Coleman will have to decide whether he wants to suffer the indignity of having the U.S. Supreme Court decide not to hear his case...